KU happy to host NCAA volleyball regional

Jayhawks will play Cleveland State in Allen Fieldhouse

LAWRENCE — When Kansas volleyball began its season, junior middle blocker Caroline Jarmoc wasn’t too familiar with the specifics of the NCAA Tournament.

In fact, she didn’t know that the country’s top 16 seeds host the first two rounds of the tournament on their campus.

“We knew we were going to make the tournament, and we knew what our RPI was,” Jarmoc said. “Then the talk of hosting started coming up and I was like, ‘Oh my gosh. We need to host.’ ”

Three months after the season began, Kansas is the No. 11 overall seed and will play its first round game against Cleveland State at 6:30 p.m. on Friday in Lawrence. Arkansas and Wichita State are also playing at KU.

Jarmoc came to KU from Calgary, and while she didn’t know exactly how the tournament works, she certainly played a major role in helping the Jayhawks succeed to their 25-6 record this season, as she recently earned All-Big 12 first team honors.

While KU reached one of its goals in hosting the first two round of the tournament, the games will still have a different feel than the ones the Jayhawks have played at home for most of their season.

KU will not be playing on its traditional home court inside the cozy Horejsi Family Athletics Center, but instead inside the much large venue of Allen Fieldhouse.

“I don’t know if there’s a feeling that can beat Horejsi when its super packed,” Jarmoc said. “I’m excited to see how busy it gets tomorrow.”

Her coach isn’t so concerned about the venue change.

Ray Bechard, who was just named the Big 12 Coach of the Year, saw his team perform well in Allen Fieldhouse in a 3-0 win over Saint Louis just over one week ago.

“We had an opportunity to play here last week in front of a good crowd and get that first-time run out of our system,” Bechard said. “We’re thrilled to be on campus hosting for the first time in school history.”

Helping build to the team’s excitement this week is the audible buzz KU volleyball has created around Lawrence.

On Thursday outside the women’s locker room at Allen Fieldhouse, junior setter Erin McNorton told the story of her teammate, Jaime Mathieu, getting approached by a woman at Target telling her how proud she was of the team.

“The support from everyone is insane,” McNorton said.

That support may have been most visible when KU basketball played San Jose State at the Fieldhouse on Monday. During an early timeout, the volleyball team walked onto James Naismith court to a standing ovation after a short video from Bill Self wishing the Jayhawks luck.

“I was so nervous,” McNorton said. “When they stood up and started clapping it was the coolest feeling. I couldn’t stop smiling.”

Kansas is not taking their opponent, Cleveland State, lightly — the Vikings are taking a 13 -game winning streak into the tournament. The winner will advance to play either Wichita State or Arkansas at 6:30 p.m. Saturday.

“You can play anybody this time of the year and if you don’t show up, you’re done,” Bechard said. “That’s what makes it so exciting and makes it so agonizing at the same time.”